No argument for Obamacares repeal can top the simple fact that Members of Congress do not want it to apply to them.

Todays Politico reports that the House and Senate congressional leadershipboth Democrats and Republicans working in cahoots with Obama Administration officialshave been secretly negotiating for months trying to find a way to exempt Members of Congress and their staffs from being forced into Obamacares health insurance exchanges.

Beginning on January 1, 2014, these exchanges, to be run by the federal government or the states (under federal rules) will offer federally qualified insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Ordinary Americans must either sign up or face a tax penalty. Senator Max Baucus (DMT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has now famously described the Obamas Administrations implementation of this process as an oncoming train wreck, and Henry Chao, an Administration official involved with the implementation of the law, just hopes that Americans can avoid a third-world experience.

According to the Politico story, there are two major reasons why Members of Congress want to exempt themselves and their staffs from the terms and conditions of the law:

They fear higher health care costs. Congressional leaders fear that being forced into the Obamacare exchanges will result in higher health care costs for themselves and their families and their aides. The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employerin this case the federal government. This is also true for millions of ordinary Americans. They could also lose their employer-based coverage, and they could also face higher costs. Also contrary to the Presidents promises, independent analysts expect health insurance premiums to rise sharply, particularly for younger workers and their families. They fear the impact on Capitol Hill employment. There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isnt revised, could lead to a brain drain on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it. Given the insane spending and record deficits, its hard to imagine how a Capitol Hill brain drain could produce even worse government. But ordinary Americans who run businesses are also faced with anxieties, particularly whether they will be able to hire or retain valued employees or reduce full-time workers to part-time employees in order to avoid Obamacares mandatory costs.

For veteran Capitol Hill watchers, shenanigans behind closed doors to enable Congress and its staffers to escape Obamacare come as no surprise. After all, the national health care law was fashioned through repulsive backroom dealing (the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, etc.) that set a record for arrogance and contempt of popular opinion. Favored businesses and unions got special exemptions (more than 1,200 waivers) from Obamacares insurance rules. So consider todays Politico revelation just marquee for a rerun of a tiresome old movie: one set of rules for Congress and another set of rules for the rest of us.

If Congress quietly wants to exempt itself from Obamacare, thats greatso long as it includes the rest of us in that midnight amendment.

Mixed reports on this tonight and I have not found it on FR so far. Heritage seems credible. Politico broke the story. If the SOBs are making excuses, and they are, it sounds likely this is true though they are already denying it.

It is time for pitchforks if true... past time.

They also quietly repealed the prohibition against their insider trading.

Once upon a time, in an easier going and more free country, we would go for weeks at a time without hearing a single story on congress or the president. Now it is a daily onslaught. The nation is unhinged.

i think the house bill (read it a long time ago, now)exempted these oh so pharisee leavened political hacks, but since they had to adopt the senate bill without reconciliation (due to the extreme pressure exerted by the tea party), they probably couldn’t get their own exemptions back into the bill. and now they all (i.e., the d.c. party) need to get their healthcare taken care of at our expense. hypocrites.

anyway, clearly the only way things will change at the national level is with a new Conservative Party of America.

Todays Politico reports that the House and Senate congressional leadershipboth Democrats and Republicans working in cahoots with Obama Administration officialshave been secretly negotiating for months trying to find a way to exempt Members of Congress and their staffs from being forced into Obamacares health insurance exchanges.

By the way, here is more information on the honorable art of tarring and feathering. Assuming the historical pine tar is used, it needn't be actually physically injurious to the politician being tarred and feathered.

Society used to be a triangle sitting on its base. Ideally, at least for the dhimmis, it would be a triangle balanced on its point—with most people doing well at the top and very few at the bottom. If you follow that abstraction.
Of course, that’s a utopia: an ‘unplace’; it doesn’t exist/is impossible.

We’ve got a diamond shape, with most of us falling somewhere in the middle of the upper triangle resting on an inverted triangle.
So the Congress, near the top, exempts itself. Remember Nanzi rhapsodizing a couple years ago about how the ‘Affordable Care’s act would ‘free artists and musicians to live and create w/o fear ‘... blah blab?
She was talking about the grown men you see walking around downtown and playing roundball in the middle of the day/week. And now herself. Wouldn’t want to undermine their dignity, so yeah—only a portion of the population will pay premiums and penalties. That’s you and me.
The guys they were hoping had bombed their fellow Americans.

As a postscript (past my bedtime) I meant to include: I don’t have the numbers, but I don’t think they really do either, for now. They’re still ginning-up the (new, improved & friendly!) IRS to make sure we comply.

But like pornography—’I know it when I see it’—I can recognize a massive Solyndra-like Ponzi scheme when I see it. It’s simply unsustainable. Too much dead-weight in the wagon and not enough horses.
What should make Americans the angriest, I think, is that they know it too.

Where is that picture of Archeologists discover the first politician = picture of the pelvic region with the skull inside. Because everyone knows politician have to undo their pants in order to speak because they have their heads up their posterior region. No wonder someone like Obama always has flies around his exposed face.

They fear higher health care costs. Congressional leaders fear that being forced into the Obamacare exchanges will result in higher health care costs for themselves and their families and their aides. "The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employerin this case the federal government."

It is like they took their own advice, and decided to find out what was in the Bill after they voted on it. Great plan Dims.

40
posted on 04/26/2013 4:16:31 AM PDT
by corlorde
(forWARD of the state)

Talk about the ultimate vote of no confidence in ObamaCare when lawmakers start exempting themselves!

What about a denial of equal protection claim from those of use who are still under its mandates? The basis for granting waivers to so many seems arbitrary and capricious, and accordingly the rest of us shouldn’t be subject to the crappy law either.

Only republicans should be exempted. Democrats must face the full bruit of this abomination they crafted and shoved down everyone’s throat.

As republicans had nothing to do with this abomination and are indeed at the forefront of trying to protect innocent people from its illfull effects they deserve an exception and this exception should apply not just to the republicans in congress but registered republican everywhere.

According to the Forbes article, the president and congress are not exempt from Obamacare. I remember clearly the discussions about their exemption back in 2010, and have never heard before today that they aren’t exempt. Did that exemption get removed from the bill before it was passed? Is the government lying now about being exempt? Does anyone here know the truth on this issue?

49
posted on 04/26/2013 10:08:44 AM PDT
by American Quilter
(I will succeed despite the liberals.)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.